Question for John Harper from a player at last night’s session.
How can I recruit new cohorts as a downtime action? It feels like it should be possible, but nothing quite seemed to fit, short of training and applying it to the crew sheet rather than their own playbook. I wondered if it was left to crew advances deliberately, but it felt like the PCs should be able to do something in that vein during downtime.
If you need a “temporary” cohort, that’s totally “acquire an asset”; if you want them to be permanently associated with your crew, you’ll need to spend XP.
Make it a long-term project (or probably 2+ linked projects).
“A long-term project is a good catch-all for dealing with any unusual player goal, including things that circumvent or change elements of the mechanics or the setting” – p8.
Yeah, Mike and Jason are both right. The only way to create or improve cohorts is by leveling up your crew. In downtime you can only gain temporary assets or bonuses. However you can break all the rules with a Long Term Project.
One of my crew’s has a cohort that is a possessor ghost that rides around in a ritually prepared hull spider. The crew’s leech has used a Long Term Project to improve the capabilities of the hull which in turn increased the quality of the cohort. He could potentially add a new type to the cohort as well by adding something like “stealth shielding” or “occult foci” to make the hull a shadow or adept in addition to being a killer, but he has not yet.
Yep, it’s acquire asset in downtime for a temporary cohort. Then you can spend XP for a permanent one.
Also, long-term projects can “break the rules” as Jason pointed out.